"Coordinated Attack: Beginning at 5th level, you and your animal companion form a more potent fighting team. When you use the Attack action on your turn, if your companion can see you, it can use its reaction to make a melee attack." UA Ranger Beast Conclave
My interpretation: Instead of gaining the general feature of Extra Attack, the Beast Conclave Ranger gains Coordinated Attack, which lets the animal companion make a melee attack with a reaction if it can see the Ranger make an Attack action on its turn. A fairly good feature which allows the animal companion to attack more than once in a round, even if the Ranger and companion are not attacking the same target.
My DM interprets it another way, which is that my jaguar can ONLY take the reaction DURING my turn, (before he has a chance to move in to melee range with combatants). I otherwise lose the chance to use the Coordinated Attack. and we usually lose the Coordinated Attack. I've gotten to use it maybe twice in a month's worth of sessions.
My DM has my companion going always after me on my initiative instead of having its own. I don't know if that is having an effect on the way its supposed to play, since the UA says my jaguar should have its own initiative.
I almost never get to use Coordinated Attack because when I fire my arrow there's not guaranteed to be any enemies near my jaguar (he hasn't gotten to them yet).
UA was supposed to buff/fix Ranger so I have a feeling the Coordinated Attack isn't meant to weaken my class but taking away a nearly always Extra Attack for a nearly never Coordinated Attack feels like a nerf rather than a buff.
Does my jaguar lose the reaction once I end my turn?
Is there a way to get an explanation of if it is meant to be played this way or if my jaguar is meant to have two attacks per round?
Is there another way I'm supposed to be using my jaguar so I get the Coordinated Attack?
So this isn't really a question about the Revised Ranger but rather a question about reactions in general. You cannot "hold" a reaction for later. You take the reaction when it's triggered, or do you don't take the reaction at all.
It shouldn't be the case, however, that Coordinated attack is "nearly never." Aside from closing the initial distance, your companion should always be in melee range of something.
I'm not sure why my jaguar is not usually in melee range of anyone. I know it takes two turns to close the distance typically. In between those two turns the combatants just... go a different direction, go a different way. Plus, my jaguar only gets one reaction regardless so... all the combatants just... move away from him. So my companion is alone again on my turn.
I've be trying to get my jaguar solidly into the middle of all the combat. I guess I'll just try harder? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Two turns to close the distance???? How the hell far away do your combats start?
Jaguars move 50ft a turn without the dash action, which is twice the speed of most Small humanoids, and almost twice the speed of Medium humanoids. Your Jaguar can Dash to get into melee range of anything within 100 feet the turn combat starts. If your Jaguar starts next to you and can't reach the enemy until Turn 2, the enemy is at least 100ft away, which means they literally cannot hit you without disadvantage unless they're using longbows. If YOU have a longbow (or Sharpshooter to cancel out the range disadvantage) then you can fire without being hit in return, which means your damage per turn doesn't actually matter that much - you auto-win any encounter because you're dealing damage and they aren't. Even spells aren't much of a threat to you; if you stay at least 120 feet away, there are literally no damaging spells under level 3 that can target you.
The other thing is that the whole point of the Beastmaster is versatility. Jaguars have the Pounce ability, allowing them to attempt to knock a target prone if they move at least 20 feet in a straight line before attacking. This means that your enemy has four choices if your Jaguar is next to them:
-Stay still and take an offensive action, which means you get Coordinated Attack. 1 Ranger shot, 1 Jaguar attack, 1 Jaguar reaction attack.
-Disengage and run, which means they probably get 30ft away, which means your jaguar can catch up and Pounce next turn. 1 Ranger shot, 1 Jaguar Pounce.
-Run and dash, which means they get 60ft away but your jaguar gets an opportunity attack. It can dash to catch them on its next turn. 1 Ranger shot, 1 Jaguar reaction attack.
-Run and take an offensive action, which means they get 30ft away. 1 Ranger shot, 1 Jaguar Pounce, 1 Jaguar reaction attack.
What this means in the end is that either you completely deny one target's actions every turn (because they need to either Disengage or Dash) or you max out your damage anyway. You're right that Extra Attack is usually better for raw damage, but Extra Attack doesn't force the enemy to run away to avoid damage... and Coordinated Attack means you get to punish them harder for standing still.
I'm not sure why my jaguar is not usually in melee range of anyone. I know it takes two turns to close the distance typically. In between those two turns the combatants just... go a different direction, go a different way. Plus, my jaguar only gets one reaction regardless so... all the combatants just... move away from him. So my companion is alone again on my turn.
I've be trying to get my jaguar solidly into the middle of all the combat. I guess I'll just try harder? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'd rather have the Extra Attack.
The Revised Ranger is officially dead in terms of playtest. It might be a good idea to ask your DM if, instead of the Revised Ranger, you can play the official ranger with the Class Feature Variants UA which is still live playtest. You still get extra attack, and if you use the "beast of the earth" stat block for your companion, you can command it to attack as a bonus action, which it will try to carry out on its turn as normal.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
"Coordinated Attack: Beginning at 5th level, you and your animal companion form a more potent fighting team. When you use the Attack action on your turn, if your companion can see you, it can use its reaction to make a melee attack." UA Ranger Beast Conclave
My interpretation: Instead of gaining the general feature of Extra Attack, the Beast Conclave Ranger gains Coordinated Attack, which lets the animal companion make a melee attack with a reaction if it can see the Ranger make an Attack action on its turn. A fairly good feature which allows the animal companion to attack more than once in a round, even if the Ranger and companion are not attacking the same target.
My DM interprets it another way, which is that my jaguar can ONLY take the reaction DURING my turn, (before he has a chance to move in to melee range with combatants). I otherwise lose the chance to use the Coordinated Attack. and we usually lose the Coordinated Attack. I've gotten to use it maybe twice in a month's worth of sessions.
My DM has my companion going always after me on my initiative instead of having its own. I don't know if that is having an effect on the way its supposed to play, since the UA says my jaguar should have its own initiative.
I almost never get to use Coordinated Attack because when I fire my arrow there's not guaranteed to be any enemies near my jaguar (he hasn't gotten to them yet).
UA was supposed to buff/fix Ranger so I have a feeling the Coordinated Attack isn't meant to weaken my class but taking away a nearly always Extra Attack for a nearly never Coordinated Attack feels like a nerf rather than a buff.
Does my jaguar lose the reaction once I end my turn?
Is there a way to get an explanation of if it is meant to be played this way or if my jaguar is meant to have two attacks per round?
Is there another way I'm supposed to be using my jaguar so I get the Coordinated Attack?
So this isn't really a question about the Revised Ranger but rather a question about reactions in general. You cannot "hold" a reaction for later. You take the reaction when it's triggered, or do you don't take the reaction at all.
It shouldn't be the case, however, that Coordinated attack is "nearly never." Aside from closing the initial distance, your companion should always be in melee range of something.
Thanks for helping.
I'm not sure why my jaguar is not usually in melee range of anyone. I know it takes two turns to close the distance typically. In between those two turns the combatants just... go a different direction, go a different way. Plus, my jaguar only gets one reaction regardless so... all the combatants just... move away from him. So my companion is alone again on my turn.
I've be trying to get my jaguar solidly into the middle of all the combat. I guess I'll just try harder? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'd rather have the Extra Attack.
Two turns to close the distance???? How the hell far away do your combats start?
Jaguars move 50ft a turn without the dash action, which is twice the speed of most Small humanoids, and almost twice the speed of Medium humanoids. Your Jaguar can Dash to get into melee range of anything within 100 feet the turn combat starts. If your Jaguar starts next to you and can't reach the enemy until Turn 2, the enemy is at least 100ft away, which means they literally cannot hit you without disadvantage unless they're using longbows. If YOU have a longbow (or Sharpshooter to cancel out the range disadvantage) then you can fire without being hit in return, which means your damage per turn doesn't actually matter that much - you auto-win any encounter because you're dealing damage and they aren't. Even spells aren't much of a threat to you; if you stay at least 120 feet away, there are literally no damaging spells under level 3 that can target you.
The other thing is that the whole point of the Beastmaster is versatility. Jaguars have the Pounce ability, allowing them to attempt to knock a target prone if they move at least 20 feet in a straight line before attacking. This means that your enemy has four choices if your Jaguar is next to them:
-Stay still and take an offensive action, which means you get Coordinated Attack. 1 Ranger shot, 1 Jaguar attack, 1 Jaguar reaction attack.
-Disengage and run, which means they probably get 30ft away, which means your jaguar can catch up and Pounce next turn. 1 Ranger shot, 1 Jaguar Pounce.
-Run and dash, which means they get 60ft away but your jaguar gets an opportunity attack. It can dash to catch them on its next turn. 1 Ranger shot, 1 Jaguar reaction attack.
-Run and take an offensive action, which means they get 30ft away. 1 Ranger shot, 1 Jaguar Pounce, 1 Jaguar reaction attack.
What this means in the end is that either you completely deny one target's actions every turn (because they need to either Disengage or Dash) or you max out your damage anyway. You're right that Extra Attack is usually better for raw damage, but Extra Attack doesn't force the enemy to run away to avoid damage... and Coordinated Attack means you get to punish them harder for standing still.
The Revised Ranger is officially dead in terms of playtest. It might be a good idea to ask your DM if, instead of the Revised Ranger, you can play the official ranger with the Class Feature Variants UA which is still live playtest. You still get extra attack, and if you use the "beast of the earth" stat block for your companion, you can command it to attack as a bonus action, which it will try to carry out on its turn as normal.